NEOLITHIC.
Black or red burnished pottery.
BRONZE AGE.

Early Minoan.
Painted pottery, dark paint on light ground, geometric designs.
Unpainted, surface mottled red and black.

Middle Minoan.
circa. 3000 B.C.--White designs geometric on dark ground. Orange
and crimson added. Pottery very thin and fine (Kamares ware).
Patterns very various but not naturalistic except in rare instances.
(Figs. 3 and 4; hatched lines=red.)

Late Minoan.
circa. 1500 B.C.--Return to use of light ground. Brown lustrous
paint, fine surface to clay. Decoration naturalistic, flowers,
cuttle-fish, shells, spirals, ripple patterns, white and orange dots
and bands occasionally super-imposed on dark glaze (Figs. 7, 10, and
12).

White and orange disappear. Decoration stiffer and more conventional.

AEGEAN.

NEOLITHIC. Nothing known.

BRONZE AGE.

Contemporary with Early Minoan.

Pottery with geometric patterns normally dark on light buff or
reddish coarse clay. Sometimes red or white on black burnished clay.

Marble figurines 'fiddle-shaped' from Naxos and Paros (III, Fig. 6).

Contemporary with Middle Minoan.

Pottery with very pale sometimes greenish clay, and grey black
totally unlustrous paint. Patterns mainly geometric. Rather sparse
decoration. Later, with addition of red, decoration becomes fully
naturalistic. Lilies and birds in red and black (Melos) (III, Figs. 5 and
9; hatched lines=red). Beaked jugs (III, Fig. 5) most characteristic shape
of this period.

Cretan influence strong in Middle Minoan completely drowned local
efforts in first Late Minoan days. Thenceforward local ware
imitative.

SOUTH GREECE.

NEOLITHIC. Nothing known.

BRONZE AGE.
Geometric Ware with matt paint and pale clay corresponding to that of
islands found in Argolid and Boeotia.

'Urfirnis' Ware. Hand-made. Whole vase covered with thin semi-
lustrous wash varying from red-brown to black. Sometimes mere smears.
Mainly found in Boeotia, but extends north to valley of Spercheius
and south to Argolid. Date uncertain, but in Boeotia evidence that it
ended before rise of 'Minyan' ware.

'Minyan Ware.' Grey unpainted pottery, polished. No decoration except
(rarely) incised lines. Usually wheel-made. Characteristic shapes:
Goblet with tall ringed stem (III, Fig. 15); wide open cup with high
handles.

Appears to range Between Middle Minoan II and Late Minoan III.

Most frequent in Boeotia to which it owes its name. Found as far
north as Thes